History

The Island's individuality is in part due to it's rich history.

The Isle of Man has entered the 21st Century with confidence but
it looks back with pride on a distinctive heritage. Today, Manx
culture is carefully safeguarded as a vital component of the
Island's individual character, and there is increased emphasis on
the work of such institutions as Manx National Heritage, an
organisation unique in the British Isles, protecting, presenting
and promoting all aspects of the Manx cultural and natural
heritage.

Mann
became an Island as the glaciers of the last Ice Age retreated and
the sea level rose around 10,000 years ago. As the natural
environment developed and flourished people were soon attracted to
this tiny but strategically-sited land mass at the heart of the
Irish Sea, pivotal to the important sea trade and communication
routes from Scandinavia in the north and Europe in the south, and
between Britain and Ireland. Influences from all these lands have
touched the Island, some by direct settlement of new people and
others by adoption of new ideas and practices encountered by
Islanders and learnt from visitors to these shores.

The first people, the mesolithic hunter-gatherers, exploited the
natural resources of the land and sea, living in harmony with, but
at the full mercy of the environment. The introduction of farming
in the fourth millennium BC gave people an element of control over
the way they lived, establishing settlements and enabling, in good
seasons, the production of food surpluses to see them through
leaner times and to exchange for specialist goods like pottery and,
later, metal tools and weapons.

The Manx Iron Age lasted from around 500 BC to 500 AD and the
Celtic traditions established in this period are fundamental to the
culture today, perhaps the most significant legacy being the Manx
language.

Manx Gaelic was the everyday language of the people until the
19th Century, and although the last native speaker died in the
1970s, the language is currently enjoying a revival. A new
religion, Christianity, was introduced as early as the 6th Century,
and has since played an important part in the lives of the Manx
people.

The Vikings who arrived in the late 8th Century, first to raid
but then to settle and rule, were pagans. The burial mounds of
these pioneer warriors stand proudly in the landscape, declaring
their status and protecting the goods and possessions buried with
their owners.

Within a few generations, however, the Norse settlers had
adopted Christianity and in 1134, Olaf Godredson, King of Mann and
the Isles, invited the Abbot of Furness to establish a monastery at
Rushen Abbey, two miles upstream from his fortress at Castle Rushen in
Castletown. The Vikings established the Manx parliament, Tynwald
(the oldest continuous Parliament in the world), and formalized the
legal and political land divisions that still exist today.

The Norse Kingdom of Mann and the Isles came to an end in 1265
and the Island became a pawn in a game of war between Scotland and
England, with control passing back and forth between the two
nations. Sovereignty finally passed to the English Crown at the
beginning of the 15th Century and for nearly four centuries, the
Island was governed under a hereditary Lordship.

In the 18th Century, the Island's offshore independence made it
a major centre for the smuggling trade, causing a considerable loss
of revenue to the English Treasury. As a result, in 1765, the
British Government intervened directly in the course of Manx
history and purchased the entire Island for just £70,000.

A period of direct rule from Westminster followed the Revestment
of 1765, and it was not until the mid-1800s that the Island
regained a measure of control over its internal finances. Since
that time, political power has gradually devolved from London to
the Island and an old colonial-style administration has given way
to a modern democratic government. The people of the Isle of Man
have a great respect for their rich cultural heritage, which is a
testimony to their ability to adapt and exploit the changing
circumstances of history, a nation ready to meet the challenges of
tomorrow.